


Crossings (Fix-it Fic for the Season 3 Finale)

by likebunnies



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Ending, Character Death, F/M, Fix-It, Post-Season/Series 03, Post-Season/Series 03 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 05:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6598099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likebunnies/pseuds/likebunnies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crane doesn't want to do this alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crossings (Fix-it Fic for the Season 3 Finale)

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, nothing is ever going to fix this mess but I tried to inject a little humor into it all with this ficlet.

Ichabod Crane was standing by the shore of the River Styx, looking off into the chilly mist. He was in the clothing he had on the first time he died, the stiff uniform of a captain, though he wasn’t quite sure why. Death never explained itself or its reasons for such tiny things, he imagined. Death was above that. 

But here he was, looking like a long ago war should be raging around him when he had never felt more at peace. 

He heard the paddling of a boat, the oars dipping in the water, the pull ahead, then water dripping as the oars came back out of the water. He stood and waited patiently. He had nowhere else to be at this point anyway. 

“Ichabod Crane!” he heard shouted across the silence when the boat got closer. He was smart enough to know not to say anything yet. Abbie Mills rowed the boat to shore and he stood at the ready, facing her wrath. “I’ve been dead for what? A few months now? What in the hell are you doing here already? If you weren’t already dead, I’d kill you myself!”

“I can explain,” he said, sticking up a finger in the air to silence her. She took an oar and whacked his finger down. 

“Get in the damn boat and explain,” she said. “I already paid for you to get across. I figured you had no coins. But you get to row.”

He clambered into the boat and she moved so he could do the rowing. She still looked just as irritated but a twitch of a smile crossed her lips as he sat down, facing her. Abbie looked like an angel but she always had. Her hair was gloriously curly and her face beamed like the sun. 

“I know I was supposed to go on for years being a Witness,” Crane started, choosing his words carefully. Which is how they got in this trouble in the first place. He was always too careful with his words. “But then the government intervened. They had all these ops they wanted me on, searching out the supernatural. I honestly already thought they had a division for that.” 

“Go on,” Abbie said, looking at him incredulously. 

“I was out in the field one day, working...”

“Working? For pay?”

“Yes. I’ll... well, I guess I can’t pay you back now, can I? I’ll figure something out. A trade of services? So I was out working for the federal government and the paperwork was hell and I got tired of filling out requisitions for automobiles...”

“Yeah, I know how that is,” Abbie said, nodding her head. 

“And this thing – I don’t know what it was. Some sort of snow beast came out of nowhere and I thought I’m tired of this. I’m tired of living. I have seen enough since 1749 and I didn’t want to do this without you. We weren’t meant to do this without each other, Lieutenant. Ever,” Crane said, looking out over the water. 

“And?” 

He turned to face her, staring into her brown eyes. “Instead of fighting it... the snow beast... I let it hit me upside the head and that was that. Here I am. Now they can have two new Witnesses and we can spend an eternity together. If that’s all right with you?” 

“You were supposed to keep on fighting.”

“Only with you at my side. Neither of us were supposed to bury the other.” 

“I guess there’s no going back now, is there?” Abbie asked. Crane shook his head. “I have missed you. Oh, God, how I’ve missed you.” 

“And I have missed you. The ache, Abbie. At first I was in denial but then once the ache set in, I thought I’d never be warm again. I’d never feel again. All I did was go to work and get your house ready to sell and sleep in the archives and... dream of you,” he said. “And think about how badly I messed up.”

“Messed up?”

“By not telling you. Or showing you enough. Or letting go and taking a chance. But Grace Abigail Mills, I love you,” he said. Abbie raised an eyebrow and watched him for a moment, unsure she was ready to say that back. Not that there was any hurry. They had forever now. “And how I never had the courage to do this.”

He brought the oars up and put them aside before leaning forward and touching her face gently. Her hands went up to the sides of his face and drew him closer to her. They were kissing, so soft and sweet, like they should have done a thousand times while they were alive. He was just glad that line between life and death didn’t change how this felt and he felt the warmth he never thought would return. He pulled away, and resumed rowing again, a smirk on his lips now as she considered what had just transpired between them. 

“You died so you could kiss me?” she asked. 

“I died hoping I’d get to do a whole lot more with you. To you. I hope... is that possible in the afterlife?” Crane asked, eyebrow cocked. 

“Oh, you better believe it is!” Abbie said, her joyous laughter echoing over the river. 

And Crane started rowing faster. 

The End


End file.
